Obscenely high and unsustainable policing costs. OPP bills are destroying communities its officers are supposed to protect. Apparent self-interest is cloaked in the guise of public safety needs. Where is the political outrage while OPP costs continue to climb? Who is going to bring policing costs in this province under control?

CBC Toronto analysis reveals officers making six figures while suspended

At least 12 police officers in Ontario earned more than $100,000 each in 2016 while sitting at home for most or all of the year, suspended over criminal charges yet collecting their full pay, an exclusive CBC Toronto analysis reveals.

​Their salaries are revealed on Ontario's 2016 Sunshine List of top public sector earners.

Ontario is the only province in Canada where suspended police officers must be paid until and unless they are sentenced to serve time. The Liberal government is currently reconsidering that law as part of a sweeping review of policing in the province.

All four Toronto Police officers charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly planting heroin on a suspect's dashboard made the 2016 Sunshine List, even though they were suspended in January last year.

Two other suspended Toronto Police Service members are on the Sunshine List:

- Sgt. Christopher Heard: $119,921 (suspended in May 2016, charged with sexual assault, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his cruiser).- Sgt. Robert Goudie: $116,524 (suspended in November 2015, charged with assault in connection with an altercation in a Scarborough parking lot that sent a man to hospital).

Two Ottawa police officers suspended in 2016 appear on the Sunshine List:

- Const. Peter Dawson: $102,330 (suspended in February 2016 over allegations of falsely issuing traffic warnings). - Const. Christian Nungisa: $102,462 (suspended in May 2016 and later charged with unsafe storage of a firearm). He was also charged with impaired driving in February of this year.

CBC Toronto also asked the province's three other largest police forces, the Ontario Provincial Police, Peel Regional Police and York Regional Police to provide the names and ranks of their officers currently suspended with pay.

The OPP declined to provide a list of its suspended officers and said a Freedom of Information request would be necessary to release the names.

However, by examining information in news reports and searching the Sunshine List, CBC Toronto determined that at least four OPP officers spent all of 2016 on suspension yet earned more than $100,000.

All three members of the OPP Association union executive who were suspended in March 2015 over allegations of fraud and money laundering appear on the Sunshine List for 2016:

The issue of suspending police officers with pay has been under "serious discussion" for the past year, said Marie-France Lalonde, minister for community safety and correctional services.

"We have not made any final decision, but certainly this is something that, as we move forward on our strategy for a safer Ontario, it will be part of the modernizing," Lalonde said in an interview with CBC News at Queen's Park on Monday. "I think we are coming around to think that we need to do something and to ensure that we find the right solution."

Lalonde is promising to unveil her strategy for reforms to policing by June.

A suspended officer’s pay will only be withdrawn if the individual is convicted of a crime and sentenced, she said.

Ontario is the only province in which such rules apply.

The Ontario government on Friday put out its latest list of employees paid $100,000 or more in 2016, a measure required under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.

Media reports have suggested as many as 12 police officers across the province who figure in that latest Sunshine List earned their six digits while spending all or most of 2016 under suspension.

That includes Cst. George Duke, one of three Leeds County OPP officers charged in 2015 with various offences in connection with a broader investigation.

The list includes Duke as making $107,857.78 with $132.18 in taxable benefits.

Duke, a 20-year veteran of the provincial police force, was arrested in October 2015 and charged with theft over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, breach of trust, unlawful possession of a restricted firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a firearm without a licence and possession of an illegal drug.

Two other officers, David Vogelzang and Jason Redmond, were also arrested as a result of an 18-month investigation that began in May 2014.

Redmond is charged with obstructing justice, three counts of trafficking marijuana, one count of forgery and one count of breach of trust while Vogelzang has been charged with obstruction of justice.

None of the charges have been proven in court.

Duke is expected to face trial in September, while the matters of the other two accused – whose names do not appear on the Sunshine List – are to be spoken to in court later this week, according to court staff in Brockville.

While the wheels of the criminal justice system continue their slow movement in these cases, the officers continue to draw full salary.

Shortly after the officers were charged, the OPP’s East Region commander at the time, Chief Superintendent Daniel Redmond, said he supported efforts by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police to get the province to open up the act and allow supervisory officers to suspend officers without pay in serious cases.

More recently, a survey conducted in early February by the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards showed unanimous support to a proposed change giving police chiefs more freedom to suspend officers who have been accused of serious misconduct without pay.